Ancora board nominees attack NS on safety after Pennsylvania accident

Derailed tank cars next to river

CLEVELAND — Continuing attacks on current management at Norfolk Southern, board nominees of investor Ancora Holdings have issued a “white paper” on last Saturday’s three-train NS collision in Pennsylvania in which they outline what they say would be safety upgrades at the railroad and question the current operating culture. The investment group launched a proxy […]

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Three-train NS incident unfolded in less than a minute, NTSB investigator tells township council

Locomotives on riverbank after derailment

LOWER SAUCON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A National Transportation Safety Board investigator has filled in town officials on additional details of last weekend’s incident collision and derailment involving three Norfolk Southern trains, saying a total of nine railcars derailed in the incident, WFMZ-TV reports. Ruben Payan, who is leading the NTSB team looking at train operations, […]

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Bill to end cuts to railroad unemployment insurance advances in Senate

Trains Washington Watch logo

WASHINGTON — The Senate Budget Committee has unanimously voted to advance a bill that would permanently exempt railroad workers’ unemployment and sickness insurance benefits from sequestration cuts, and end current cuts. Industry and labor groups had jointly written members of the committee earlier this week asking for support for S.1274, the Railroad Employee Equity and […]

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Amtrak adds eight weekday, four weekend Northeast Corridor trains

Passenger train passing through station in heavy rain

WASHINGTON — Beginning today (Monday, March 4), Amtrak is scheduling four additional Northeast Regional round trips weekdays and two on the weekends between New York and Washington, D.C. The decision to reconfigure seating in each coach so that half of the seats face in different directions [see “Fixed forward and backward seating to speed Northeast Regional […]

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Meet Ron Hoess

man standing next to model train layout, holding controller

What was your first train set (or locomotive)? My first train set was from John English & Co. The three freight cars and caboose were pulled by a Pennsylvania Railroad Fairbanks-Morse 1200 HP switcher. These were sold in the 1954-57 time period. My Dad built a small layout (we used to call it a platform) […]

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Coach passengers now can buy meals in Silver Star and Silver Meteor dining cars

Amtrak dining car with one person dining at one table

WASHINGTON — Amtrak’s New York-Miami trains will begin offering “traditional dining” to “a limited number of coach customers” starting today (Monday, March 4), according to spokeswoman Kimberly Woods. The company dropped meal-in-a-bowl “flexible dining” last March on the Silver Star and last June on the Silver Meteor [see “Amtrak returns ‘traditional dining’ …,” Trains News […]

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Amtrak awards contract for Philadelphia maintenance facility

Aerial view of rail yard showing planned new construction

PHILADELPHIA — Amtrak has awarded a contract to Herzog Contracting Corp. for design and construction of a new Heavy Maintenance Facility at the passenger operator’s Penn Coach Yard in Philadelphia, the first of six major projects planned for maintenance facilities around the country. The projects at five locations in the Northeast and one in the […]

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